By Rick Reeno
BoxingScene.com was advised by Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer that David Haye was cleared, by his physician, to fight on July 25 at the earliest. On Wednesday, Haye pulled out, due to a back injury, from his June 20th bout with IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
As I reported earlier, Klitschko made a decision to keep the same date and reached a deal to fight unbeaten Ruslan Chagaev in the same venue. Over 60,000 fans are expected to attend. HBO has passed on Klitschko-Chagaev.
Schaefer told BoxingScene that RTL, the network that televises Klitschko's fights in Germany, was not available for the date of July 25. He believes that was the breaking point that made Klitschko take the fight with Chagaev.
"I spoke with David, he met with his doctor and the earliest he was able to fight was July 25. RTL, the German network, was not available for that date and I think that's why they decided to go with Chagaev," Schaefer said.
As far as the next move for Haye, Schaefer is going to get him back in the ring as soon as possible.
"Maybe we'll try to make the fight with Klitschko later on but I think it's going to be tough because of the [IBF] mandatory that he has with Alexander Povetkin. I will speak to David and his team. I'll see what they want to do and we'll take it from there," Schaefer said.